Margaret the Virgin

, produced 1503 to 1508. According to a 9th-century martyrology of Rabanus Maurus, Margaret suffered at Antioch in Pisidia (in what is now Turkey) in c. 304, during the Diocletianic Persecution. She was the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Her mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a Christian woman five or six leagues () from Antioch. Having embraced Christianity and consecrated her virginity to God, Margaret was disowned by her father, adopted by her nurse, and lived in the country keeping sheep with her foster mother. Olybrius, Governor of the Roman Diocese of the East, asked to marry her, with the demand that she renounce Christianity. Upon her refusal she was cruelly tortured, during which various miraculous incidents are reported to have occurred. One of these involved being swallowed by Satan in the shape of a dragon, from which she escaped alive when the cross she carried irritated the dragon's innards. Eventually, she was decapitated. == Historicity ==

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Margaret's story is "generally regarded to be fictitious". The Catholic Encyclopedia states "even the century to which she belonged is uncertain". Doubts about her story are not new: by the Middle Ages, hagiographer Jacobus de Voragine (author of the well-known Golden Legend) considered her martyrology to be too fantastic and remarked that the part where she is eaten by the dragon was to be considered a legend. ==Veneration==

The Greek Marina came from Antioch in Pisidia (as opposed to Antioch of Syria), but this distinction was lost in the West. From the east her veneration spread towards England, France, and Germany, in the 11th century during the Crusades. In 1222, the Council of Oxford added her to the list of feast days, and so her cult acquired great popularity. Many versions of the story were told in 13th-century England, in Anglo-Norman (including one ascribed to Nicholas Bozon), English, and Latin, and more than 250 churches are dedicated to her in England, most famously, St. Margaret's, Westminster, the parish church of the British Houses of Parliament in London. There is also a Saint Margaret Shrine in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Feast day She is recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church, being listed as such in the Roman Martyrology for 20 July. She was also included from the 12th to the 20th century among the saints to be commemorated wherever the Roman Rite was celebrated, but was then removed from the general calendar along with other European saints through the apostolic letter Mysterii Paschalis. The Eastern Orthodox Church knows Margaret as Saint Marina, and celebrates her feast day on 30 July. Margaret is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 20 July. Every year on Epip 23 the Coptic Orthodox church celebrates her martyrdom day, and on Hathor 23 the church celebrates the dedication of a church to her name. Saint Mary church in Cairo holds a relic believed to be Margaret's right hand, previously moved from the Angel Michael Church (modernly known as Haret Al Gawayna) following its destruction in the 13th century CE. In 2022, Margaret was officially added to the Episcopal Church liturgical calendar with a feast day she shares with Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara of Nicomedia on 24 November. Patronage Margaret of Antioch is a patroness of pregnant women, servant maids, kidney-sufferers, and against diabolical infestations. ==Iconography==

In art, she is often represented as a shepherdess, or pictured escaping from, or standing above, a dragon. While Western iconography typically depicts St. Margaret emerging from the dragon, Eastern Byzantine iconography tends to focus on her battle with the demon in her cell and depicts her grabbing him by his hair and swinging a copper hammer at his face. File:St. Margaret of Antioch, Chartres Cathedral (12-13c.).png|alt=St. Margaret defeats the dragon, medieval stained glass window in ruby, sapphire and emerald colours|St. Margaret of Antioch, Chartres Cathedral (12-13c.) File:Saint Margaret of Antioch MET sf25-120-328s1.jpg|alt=Saint Margaret of Antioch, wearing a veil and long dress, stands upon a crushed dragon, holding aloft a book.|Saint Margaret of Antioch, limestone with paint and gilding, Burgos (c. 1275–1325) File:Barna da Siena, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (1340).png|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch drags a black demon by its hair, holding a hammer aloft, about to strike it. She wears a long red dress, and a red scarf in her hair.|Barna da Siena, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (1340) File:St. Margaret of Antioch.jpg|alt=St. Margaret stands atop a horned dragon, who holds a piece of her blue dress between its teeth. A rose colored robe clasped around her shoulders, she holds her hands in prayer, and looks up to God, in a circle of blue, who blows down golden breath upon her.|Vie de Sainte Marguerite (1460-1499) File:Saint Margaret sculpture.jpg|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch, her wavy hair held by a jeweled circlet, wearing a dress and cape, stands atop a winged dragon, which she has defeated. |Saint Margaret and the Dragon, alabaster with traces of gilding, Toulouse (c. 1475) File:The Portinari Altarpiece, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Margaret with Maria Baroncelli and Daughter Margherita Portinari (detail), Hugo van der Goes (1475).png|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch, holding a black covered book and a gold cross, wearing a rich black dress and sumptous red cape, stands atop a glassy-eyed dragon, which she has crushed. |Hugo van der Goes, The Portinari Altarpiece, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret with Maria Baroncelli and Daughter Margherita Portinari (detail), (1475) File:Saint Margaret and the Dragon, Raphael (1518).png|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch, carrying a martyr's palm, wears a turquoise dress and rust colored cape. Beneath her feet is an upturned winged dragon, which she has defeated, its mouth frozen in a cry of agony.|Raphael, Saint Margaret and the Dragon (1518) File:Madonna and Child with Saints Margaret, Jerome, Petronius and Michael (detail of St. Margaret of Antioch), Parmigianino (1529).jpg|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch, wearing a fur lined cloth of gold cape covered in white flowers, adores the Christ Child, who touches her garment.|Parmigianino, Madonna and Child with Saints Margaret, Jerome, Petronius and Michael (detail of St. Margaret of Antioch) (1529) File:St margaret museo del prado madrid.jpg|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch, barefoot, holding a cross, looks down at the alligator-like head of the dragon she has defeated.|Titian, Saint Margaret and the Dragon (1559) File:Titian, Saint Margaret and the Dragon (1565).png|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch, holding aloft a martyr's palm, raises a hand to the heavens as the dragon beneath her cries out|Titian, Saint Margaret and the Dragon (1565) File:Francisco de Zurbarán 047.jpg|alt=St. Margaret of Antioch, holding a prayer book and a shepherdess' crook, carrying a saddlebag and wearing a lambskin jacket over her crimson, white and indigo dress, stands before a clawed and curly tailed dragon who bares his fangs. |Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Margaret as a shepherdess (1631) ==See also==